By Tim Ubels (Contributor) – Email
Print Edition: October 9, 2013
This past weekend the Abbotsford Heat hosted back-to-back games against the Milwaukee Admirals, winning 3-2 on Friday and losing 2-1 on Saturday. Friday night’s home opener included hockey legend Guy LaFleur, who was invited to take part in the ceremonial puck drop before the game. LaFleur, who is the first to take part in Abbotsford’s “Legends of Hockey” series, received a warm welcome from Heat fans, as many of them rose to their feet to salute the Montreal Canadians’ all-time leader in points.
Despite LaFleur’s presence at the ASEC Friday night, the club’s home opener between the Heat and the Admirals was a goaltender’s battle from start to finish. Whether it was Heat netminder Reto Berra standing tall to make 24 hard earned saves or Admirals goalie Magnus Hellberg standing on his head to keep his team in the game, both goaltenders played outstanding throughout.
The Admirals had all the momentum early on, but it was the Heat who came away with the best chances after the first period. After stepping out of the penalty box, Mark Cundari came in on an odd-man rush with Josh Joorish and fed him the puck with a beautiful behind-the-back pass, but Hellberg robbed Joorish. With under three minutes left in the frame, Hellberg misplayed the puck right to Max Reinhart who fed it out front to Roman Horak for an easy goal. However, Hellberg dove back across the crease with his glove hand and got just got enough of the puck to send it sailing wide. The building was buzzing about that play until the intermission started.
In the second period the Admirals opened the scoring. Admiral’s forward Austin Watson beat Heat forward Chad Billins to a loose puck behind the Heat net, and fed it out front to Patrick Cehlin, who beat Berra with a quick move to the left. The Heat seemed to wake up after the Cehlin marker, as they started throwing more pucks at the net and creating more traffic in front of Hellberg. Just when it seemed the Heat would be down by a goal heading into the third period, Paul Byron innocently dumped the puck towards Hellberg, but before the goaltender could sweep the puck out of harm’s way, Turner Elson leaped around Admirals defenseman Joe Piskula to one hand the puck past Hellberg for his first career AHL goal with only 4.6 seconds left in the frame. Elson, who admitted after the game that the puck had “a little English on” it, paved the way for his team’s third period comeback rally.
Heat head coach Troy G. Ward spoke about Elson’s all-important first career goal after the game, “It was obviously the turning point of the game. If we’re down after two, it’s a different game. It certainly gave us some momentum and gave our young kids some energy in the locker room. We went into the third with a different mindset after that.”
Ben Hanowski put the Heat up 2-1 on a tic-tac-toe passing play from Corban Knight and Josh Joorish late in a very chippy third period, after Piskula gave the puck away in his own zone. However, the Admirals forward Taylor Beck responded with a goal of his own three minutes later, potting a rebound at the side of the net and sending the game into sudden-death overtime.
Despite Beck’s late game heroics, he soon went from hero to zero. He took a hooking penalty in the extra period, giving the Heat the opportunity to sink the Admirals that they quickly took advantage of. Corban Knight came streaking down the right wing, and centered the puck into a crowd of players in front of the net, and Heat forward Greg Nemisz found the mesh.
The Heat finished the evening 1-for-7 on the man advantage, and coach Ward remarked how working out the power play was part of the process of coaching a young team. “We feel good about the guys that are on the bus. We just have to get them in the right seats. We just need to be patient with them.”
Saturday night’s matchup was similar to Friday’s, as Berra and Hellberg initiated round two of their goaltending matchup, however, this time it was the Admiral’s netminder getting the better Berra, as his team walked away with a 2-1 shootout victory.
Both teams remained scoreless after the opening 40 minutes of play, with the Admirals getting the better of the chances. Heat forward Roman Horak opened the scoring early in the third, finishing off a nice feed from Reinhart and Billins to beat Hellberg on the man advantage. The goal seemed to spark the Heat, as they controlled the play for must of the third period, but the Admirals were able to weather the storm and managed to tie the game at 16:16. Admirals forward Colton Sissons buried a pass from Taylor Beck with under four minutes left to play to send the game to overtime.
After only one shot was registered in the extra frame, the two teams headed to a shootout, where the Admirals got the better of the Heat, as both Taylor Beck and Patrick Cehlin scored to help them salvage a victory in the weekend series.
The three points earned by the Heat this weekend secured their spot at the top of the West Division, as they head out for three straight road games over the next weekend, beginning with the Oklahoma City Barons on Friday, October 18. Puck drop at 5:30pm.
